FL Construction Co Cited for Fall Protection Systems Violations

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – OSHA has cited a concrete company for several safety issues, including not securing required bolts or training workers properly, following the death of a 27-year-old construction worker who plummeted 15 stories to his death in downtown West Palm Beach in September last year.

Ceco Concrete Construction received a total of four serious violations totaling $50,700 in penalties, according to a report recently released by OSHA. U.S. Department of Labor spokesman Michael D’Aquino said that the company was issued the citations in March, but has since contested them.

According to OSHA, On Sept. 1, 2016, Carlos Lopez-Sanchez was working on the 15th floor of the still-under construction The Alexander apartment building, when he fell to his death after a gust of wind blew through the area, and the “table” he was working on plummeted 15 stories.

The building is at 333 Fern St., on the northeast corner of Dixie Highway.

Investigators said the company did not properly train each employee in the correct procedures relating to fall-protection systems. Also, those systems that were in place were not tested to make sure they met the regulatory 5,000-pound support, and some of the anchorage structures to the concrete floor were “not properly secured with the required bolts.”

The citation reads: “The formwork was not designed to withstand vertical and lateral loads due to wind gusts.”

Lopez-Sanchez was the only person injured in the incident, although West Palm Beach police and firefighters searched through the debris that covered the construction site and street below for anyone who may have been trapped.